SPRING VALLEY – Three Holy Cross School track athletes have earned a trip to the IESA State Track and Field Meet after participating in the sectional meet held in Spring Valley on May 4.

Eva Beetz will be competing in the long jump and 400-meter dash at state, while Komen Denault and Leo Engels will both be participating in the pole vault. This is the first year Holy Cross has had pole vault as an event.

In the sectional meet, Beetz, a seventh grader, placed first in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:09.57. In the long jump, she took second place with a distance of 14-1.

Denault, an eighth grader, finished first in the pole vault with a height of 9-0. Engels, a seventh grader, also took first place with a measurement of 6-5.

The Holy Cross state qualifiers will be competing in the state meet to be held Friday, May 10 and Saturday, May 11 at the Eastside Centre in East Peoria.

In other Holy Cross sectional results, the eighth grade 4x100 relay placed fifth with a time of 59.8. Runners were Beetz, Gaby Martinez, Elsie Soliman and Hayley Diaz.

Soliman also ran the 400-meter dash and finished in second place with a personal record time of 1:11.39.

For the seventh graders, the 4x400 relay, which consisted of fifth grade girls, came in second with a clocking of 6:05.0. Participants were Samantha Escatel, Nicole Cervantes, Sofia Lemus, Mingxi Huang.

The team is coached by Thomas Makransky and Erika Hueneburg. Makransky is a graduate of St. Bede and went to Trinity Catholic Academy for grade school and is currently at IVCC finishing up his freshman year. Hueneburg is the athletic director and a teachers’ aide at Holy Cross.